These characters belong to Jeaniene Frost, to whom we are eternally thankful!
Great big smooches and hugs to the lovely co-betaing duo of Kristin Elizabeth and A Redhead Thing. You're the best!
Any remaining mistakes are all ours.
Chapter 9
Kira stood in the middle of a vast room. Groups of vampires congregated throughout the space, their faces barely illuminated by the flickering candles ensconced on the walls. Kira wandered through the cavernous room, looking for Mencheres's long, dark hair and elegant stature among the crowd. She couldn't find him among the vampires that leered at her as she went from group to group. She craned her neck to see into the darkest corner. There! She pushed through the crowd and grabbed him by the arm, spinning him around to see his face. NO! Her hand went to her mouth. It wasn't Mencheres. The vampire hissed at her, showing his sharp fangs while raking his glowing eyes over her body with lustful intent. She backed away, murmuring apologies as fear choked the voice in her throat.
Her eyes darted around the room. Where was he? Wait a minute. She calmed herself and tried to feel him. Nothing. A sick feeling grew inside her. She looked around the room again, walking quickly in zigzag patterns across the floor as she searched for him. Was that Gorgon? Gorgon would know where she could find Mencheres. Cautious relief filled her.
She caught a glimpse of Mencheres's hair as she cut through the crowd. Gorgon glared as she approached, and he blocked Mencheres from her with his body. "Who are you and what do you want?" His voice was cold and hard, and her relief dissipated like a puff of smoke.
"It's me, Gorgon. Why don't you know me? Please let me speak to Mencheres."
Gorgon put his arms out. "No."
Mencheres looked around Gorgon at Kira, his face an emotionless mask. He motioned for Gorgon to step aside. "You are mistaken. I do not know you," he said before he turned his back to her. She reached out and grabbed his arm before Gorgon could stop her. Mencheres turned and looked at her hand, and then brought his eyes to her face. Without a trace of emotion, he flexed his power to disengage her, and shards of pain cut through her. "You are not mine. I do not know you," he said again.
Kira dropped her hand, ignoring the deafening laughter of the others standing by. "Please..." she whispered, knowing he could hear her. But he turned and walked away, Gorgon following behind.
She dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face. Why didn't he know her? How could he just walk away after everything they'd been through? She wiped at her face, but the tears flowed down her cheeks in little pink rivulets. Then an awful laugh filled her ears. She looked up. All the vampires were gone, and the laughter expanded in the emptiness. She was alone except for one vampire.
Radje looked down at her, his face contorted in a ghastly smile. "Come, Kira, you belong to me now." He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her across the floor, his laughter combining with her screams in a grisly song. Then he stopped and bent down to whisper in her ear, his foul breath falling on her skin as he spoke. "Someone must pay, Kira." He laughed again as she pulled against his strong grip. She dug her free hand into the floor, her nails turning bloody. He was too strong. Despair rose within her as she realized Mencheres wasn't going to save her this time, and she could not save herself. Her last thoughts were of Tina, and then her own screams filled her ears, while her body ached with a pain that felt like knives rending open her wounded heart.
"Kira!" Her nails dug into Mencheres, covering his arms in blood as the wounds she clawed opened, healed, and opened again. He felt nothing but frantic over her condition. If only he could wake her from whatever had a grasp on her mind and body. "Kira!" he shouted again, alternating between gently shaking her body and rocking her in his arms. How she came to be sitting on the bedroom floor, hunched over and sobbing hysterically, he didn't know. She stopped crying when he picked her up, although she remained incoherent while she continued to clutch at his arms as if her life depended on it. But she had no awareness of her surroundings or him.
His only hope to revive her was his blood. He quickly scored his wrist on his fangs and put it to her mouth, not knowing if it would be the magic that would bring her back. When Kira's mouth stayed slack and unmoving, he became alarmed. What if his blood couldn't wake her? He moved his arm and arranged her head, repositioning his wrist until the drops fell into her mouth on their own. A muffled moan came from deep within her when he called her name, this time louder and sharper. He shook her and pressed his bloody wrist to her lips. "Kira, please..." he choked out, his voice pleading. This time her throat moved as she began to draw from his wrist.
Her eyes fluttered open, and they filled with tears as she recognized him. With an agonizing groan, she touched his face and flung her arms around him in a tight embrace, hiding her face in his neck. Her sobbing started anew, and her body shook as she held onto him. He cradled her in his arms, stroking her back and rocking her gently while he waited for her to calm down. He brought his own swirling emotions back under control, and when she finally stopped crying, he gently pulled her away from his chest so he could look at her face.
"Kira, what happened?"
"A bad dream, a horrible dream. Mencheres." Her voice shook with emotion, and he felt the trembling in her body. She placed her palm on his cheek, holding his face in her hand, her eyes open wide as if she didn't quite believe he was there.
"Do you remember how you came to be on the floor?" he asked.
"No, I have no idea. In my dream I was in a large room full of vampires. I kept looking for you but couldn't find you in the crowd. When I finally did find you and Gorgon, you told me you didn't know me. I wasn't 'yours' you said. Then..." She closed her eyes and shook her head.
"Then what?" His voice was gentle but firm.
She opened her eyes and looked away. "I don't want to talk about it. It was just so awful."
"Kira, please. I couldn't wake you. I need to know what you saw in your dream."
"Radje was there. He…" She stumbled over the words. "It was just a bad dream, Mencheres, but it seemed so real." She hated to even ask this, but she had to be sure. "You did kill Radje, right? I mean you saw him die?"
Mencheres stroked her hair away from her face and held her close. "Yes Kira, he is gone. He cannot hurt you anymore."
He lifted her up from the floor and carried her over to the bed, grabbing a box of tissues from the nightstand on his way. He sat down with her still in his arms and proceeded to gently wipe her face. He could sense she was calming down, although she was far from over the after-effects of whatever just happened. He wasn't convinced it was merely a dream, though.
"Have you considered it might have been a vision, Kira?"
Kira's body stiffened in his arms, and she pushed away from him. She raised her eyebrows in a questioning look. "Is that what you think? That this was a vision? I can have them in my sleep?" Kira didn't say anything for some time as she considered the possibility, and then she shook her head. "No, I don't want this power, Mencheres..." Her voice trailed off.
"It is possible it was just a dream, Kira. With our upcoming trip to the Law Guardians Council, it may have triggered some lingering sentiments from what happened with Radje; but it would be wrong not to consider the possibility it is a vision, based on your previous experiences with them, and I think you know that."
Kira jumped off his lap and started pacing the room. "If that's what this was, I don't think I want to know about it. These visions, if that's what you're calling them, they scare me. I don't know how you lived with this for thousands of years, knowing bad things were going to happen all the time. I'll tell you this, Mencheres, you can have that power back. I don't want it!"
Kira stopped pacing and looked at him. He could tell from her scent and demeanor that whatever she saw had disturbed her greatly. From years of habit, Mencheres put up the wall that kept Kira from sensing his emotions. He watched her emotions as they changed from fear to anger, his experience giving him insight into what she was feeling. He sympathized with her reaction, thinking he had no choice about the visions, when they came or went or how they manifested, and now, neither did she. But clearly Kira was in no state of mind to accept that fact.
"I wish I could relieve you of this power, Kira, if that is what it is, but I cannot. I am sorry. What I have given you cannot be undone." He regretted the sorrow he had caused her, but there was little time to worry about that. It was more important to look at this dream or vision, whatever she wanted to call it, and understand what it might mean to them. Perhaps it was merely a reflection of their situation with the Law Guardian Council. Kira had to feel apprehensive about that alone. But if it could shed light on what might come to pass in the future, Mencheres knew it was important for all of them, to examine this more closely. So with all the gentleness he could muster, he asked her, "Please tell me how Radje appeared in your...dream."
Kira faced him and answered him in a matter-of-fact manner. "You said you didn't know me, then he appeared, said I belonged to him and someone had to pay. I assumed that meant me. He was laughing, a hideous laugh I can still hear in my head." She shuddered when she spoke that last part.
"Will you tell me the whole thing? From start to finish? Please, Kira?"
"I'd just as soon forget it, but if you think it will help, I'll try. But I want you to do something for me."
"What is it?"
"I want you to stop blocking me. You know I hate that. Why do you do that to me? Don't you trust me?"
Mencheres let his wall down at her request but still held a tight control on his emotions.
"You know that is difficult for me, especially when we are both upset." He finally answered.
"It's bad enough that you pushed me away in my dream. It hurts when you shut me out."
Mencheres went over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "You were very upset, Kira, and in all honesty, when you spoke of Radje hurting you, it was very disturbing to me, even if I know he can no longer harm you. I did not want to compound your distress with my own. I am sorry."
Kira turned in his arms and embraced him. "Please don't cut me off like that again. I can take a lot of things, but I can't take that."
He took her hand and kissed it. "For you, Kira, I will do my best. Will you tell me of your dream now, from the beginning?"
Kira sat down on the bed and repeated the dream to Mencheres. He listened without talking, giving her the freedom to tell the story in her own manner. She choked up when she got to the part where he didn't know her. He wanted to take her in his arms and reassure her, but he resisted so she could tell the story without him distracting her. When she finally finished, they sat quietly, the atmosphere of the room too emotionally charged to speak.
Kira leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, supporting her head in her hands. The scent of her anger flooded the room. Mencheres couldn't blame her. He too was angry that Radje had managed to disrupt their life after he had thought him gone forever. He didn't blame her for feeling as she did about the power of visions, knowing how this power had enslaved him for centuries. It was an incredible burden to know the future, and now it seemed he had shared that burden with Kira. He didn't say anything, giving her time to come to grips with the devastating images she had described to him. He hoped it was as she said, just a dream. He would ponder what the images meant as well.
Kira picked her head up. There was acceptance and determination in her demeanor, instead of despair. It reminded him of when she was just a human, and his heart swelled with feeling for her.
"My human intuition was bad enough to deal with, I don't need this, too," Kira sighed. "But now that I think about it, maybe my intuition has been telling me something. Something I've been ignoring, and for that, I'm glad I had whatever it is you want to call this, dream or vision."
Mencheres felt the urge to shield himself and resisted. "What is it, Kira?"
She stood and walked over to her laptop sitting atop a small desk in the room. "I've been doing some research, and I think you know a whole lot more about Candace than you've let on. Clearly you were around when she was alive; you must know something about her. Wasn't that around the same time you were courting your wife? That would have placed you on the same continent in the same time frame. I don't think that's just a coincidence, Mencheres."
"Coincidence or not, I have never met her, Kira. This I promise you," he said, meeting her eyes.
"But you do know more about her, don't you?" Kira probed.
"Candace?"
"Yes." Something about all of this had been nagging at Kira. "You know something about her, something I didn't find searching the Internet. I can feel it. Does this have something to do with your wife?"
Mencheres closed his eyes at the mention of Patra. Would he never be free of her? It seemed he would forever pay for his marriage to her. Even finally dead, she haunted him, and now it seemed, so did Radje.
"I doubt it has anything to do with Patra, but yes, Patra knew of Candace, and she despised her."
"Why?" Kira asked.
"Patra was ten years old when her parents committed suicide." Mencheres paused to remember all the details from so long ago.
"Mark Antony and Cleopatra," Kira gasped.
"Yes. She and her twin brother were taken by the Romans, their spoils of war. The Romans were very cruel. They celebrated their victory over Egypt by parading Patra and her brother through the streets of Rome in heavy gold chains. They could barely walk. Later, they were given to the sister of the Roman Emperor Octavian to be raised in the Roman traditions. Patra was groomed to be the wife of a king, her brother was trained for war."
"Patra had a twin brother?"
"Yes. He was sent with the Roman army to the kingdom of Kush, located to the south of Egypt. A great warrior queen, Kandake Amanirenas, ruled the land with a fierce army and merciless ways. The Romans wanted her lands, and she fought many battles with them, losing her eye in one of them. She continued to fight until the Romans were defeated at Aswan."
"One-eyed Candace."
Mencheres nodded. "Sadly, Patra's brother was killed during one of these battles. She vowed vengeance against Amanirenas from that day on. It was one of the reasons she craved power and riches, so she could build her own army to exact her revenge for her brother on Amanirenas. Patra was big on revenge."
"So I've heard. What happened next?"
"Amanirenas disappeared. Some said she died or was changed to vampire, while others said she became a demon and went underground to build an army of souls to defend Kush. And so the legend of One-eyed Candace was born. When she could not be found, Patra was forced to give up her quest for vengeance, and we never spoke of it again."
"That's terrible, Mencheres. Patra must have carried that with her for centuries. But what does any of this have to do with you?"
"I do not know. I have never met Amanirenas, as a human or a vampire." Mencheres shook his head again. "I do not know, Kira."
"I'm glad you told me this, Mencheres. I don't know what these freaky dreams or visions mean, but maybe if I know some of this history, we can figure it out together. I'm going to go take a shower and get cleaned up, I feel like I'm a mess. Can we talk more later?"
Mencheres walked over and embraced Kira, kissing her softly on the forehead. "Yes, a shower is a good idea, you will feel better after. I still have a few matters I need to discuss with Gorgon. I'll be back up shortly."
"Okay. Don't take too long?"
"I shall be back soon, I promise." Mencheres kissed her tenderly on the lips before heading downstairs.
Gorgon met him in the hallway on his way to the library. "Mencheres, what happened?"
Mencheres looked down at himself and realized he was still covered with blood after Kira's ordeal. "I am fine. Thank you for asking." Mencheres inclined his head at Gorgon and indicated he should follow him into the library.
"While we are gone, I need you to find the vampire called Ash and bring him to a holding cell in one of our properties. You might find him in the freight tunnels beneath the city. I believe he is living there, at least for now. Bones will have more information on how to contact this vampire so you may want to speak with him before we leave."
"Yes, sire. Bones has a place I can keep him until you return. Anything else?"
"Have the locks been changed on Kira's sister's apartment?"
"Yes, I took care of that myself this morning."
"Very good. Why do I sense that I don't even have to ask you to look out for Tina while we are away?"
Gorgon smiled. "I'll be happy to watch over her. I enjoy her company."
Mencheres' phone began to ring, and he looked at the caller ID. Veritas. He dismissed Gorgon with a nod and answered.
"Veritas."
"Mencheres. I trust you received your summons to the hearing, and that you will be attending."
"Yes, that is what I have planned."
"Good. It is time to put these accusations of black magic to rest once and for all, and the only way you can do that is to appear before the council. I have not seen the evidence upon which Candace lays her claim, but what can she have that hasn't already been investigated?"
"That I do not know. I have nothing to hide. If there was evidence, Radje would surely have presented it to the council."
"That is what I thought as well. I am wondering why this issue is even coming up again. We need a final resolution."
"Veritas, what do you know of this Candace?"
"I was just about to ask you the same question. I understand she is old, yet I have never encountered her."
"Neither have I. There are many stories illustrating her ruthless nature, yet I have seen no proof."
"She must appear before the council to make her claims. I suppose we shall meet her soon enough."
"Yes. We will be leaving tomorrow."
"Excellent. I cannot aid in your defense, of course, but I can ensure you will be treated fairly."
"Thank you, Veritas."
Mencheres closed his phone and sat down in his chair in the library. It was dark and quiet there, and he closed his eyes. Kira's dream or vision had rattled him, more than he had allowed himself to show her upstairs. He wished he could call forth his own visions, and know not only what was to come, but also what to do about it.
Hmm… Was it a dream or a vision? Will Kira and Mencheres make it to Switzerland, and if they don't – what will happen to them? Stay tuned!
And if you want to learn more about One-Eye Candace, she really existed! You can google her! We hope you are enjoying the story and would love to hear from you. Don't be shy! Leave us a comment!
